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Diabetes is a serious life-long health condition that occurs when the amount of glucose (sugar) in the blood is too high because the body can’t use it properly1. A major complication of diabetes is the increase in cardiovascular disease including heart attacks and stroke. Cardiovascular disease can be caused by narrowing of arteries through gradual build-up of fatty material within their walls2.

The cost of diabetes to the NHS is over £1.5m an hour or 10% of the NHS budget for England and Wales. This equates to over £25,000 being spent on diabetes every minute. An estimated £10 billion is spent a year on treating diabetes and its complications, with in-patient costs estimated at two thirds of this2.

The UK prevalence of diabetes is estimated to rise to 5 million by 20252.